JOURNEY EAST

The Sunday after my friend's party I again boarded the California Zephyr to begin my journey home.  The trip eastbound on both the Zephyr and the Empire Builder is the more scenic, as we pass through the mountains in the daylight.  And one thing was very obvious - the serious drought facing the western US this summer.  Just look how little snow was to be seen!  These views are Truckee and Reno, respectively.

 

 

Now contrast those with CO.

 

 

When you watch the Weather Channel (those of you not held hostage in yet another programming fee fight) this summer and they tell you how bad the drought is, remember you saw it here first.

 

After all the troubles going west, the Zephyr was actually early coming into Chicago, but then my next train left late, so I guess it evens out in the end.

 

From Chicago I took a train called the Cardinal, which winds its way through Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, before running up the northeast corridor from Washington to NYC.  And there was a surprise - a different kind of sleeper.  This is an older-style single-level car called a Shore View.

 

 

It also has a unique two-piece entry door.

 

 

 

The roomette is about the same size as on the more modern cars, but it's taller, giving storage space overhead.  More importantly, each compartment has its own little bathroom.  This is a mixed blessing, as it makes the bed a little more narrow, but no leaving the room in the middle of the night.  Of course, I expect this is one of those occasions when it's good that I have no sense of smell.  Here's some shots of the room.

 

After coming through the Sierras and the Rockies, the mountains of West Virginia are smaller but closer; more personal somehow.  There were some impressive ice falls on the rocky hillsides, but they were too close to the tracks to photograph.  I did get some shots in the New River valley.

 

 

 

Here's a shot of the state capitol building in Charleston, WV which is taller than the dome in Washington.

 

 

 

There are two other points of interest on this route.  Before leaving West Virginia we passed through the Great Bend Tunnel, the site of the storied, and true, duel between a steam drill and John Henry, famously won by Henry.  The other spot is the Alderson Federal Women's Prison.  Sometimes referred to as Camp Cupcake, it has housed inmates as varied as Billie Holliday, Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, and Martha Stewart.

 

 

Having left late, we only got later, so I got to see a West Virginia sunset. 

 

  

 

At the end, I was the only one in the sleeper after Washington.  Weird feeling.